This is the fifth volume in a series sponsored by the United States Section
of the International Board on Books for Young People (USBBY). It aims "to provide
a guide to outstanding international children’s and young adult literature" for
0 to 18 years published between 2010 and 2014. The first volume was published in
1998 and subsequent volumes have appeared at four- to five-year intervals. Each
volume, the editors state, builds on the work of previous volumes, and collectively
provide information about international youth literature published between 1950
and 2014. Each volume has a somewhat different focus, reflecting shifts in world
literature; Reading the Worlds Stories has storytelling as its particular
focus.

The format is large and the pages well laid-out, making it as easy as possible
for the reader to navigate between different sections. A detailed list of contents
and indexes arranged by Author/Illustrator/Translator, Title and Subject assist
with making this a very user-friendly publication. More than eight hundred books
are annotated from a very wide range of countries. The annotations are provided
by a team of 40 annotators, almost all from North America. They are arranged
according to country of setting, and cross-reference by place of original publication.
All titles are originally published or republished in North America. Titles are
also referenced in the listing for the authors and illustrators. Detailed bibliographic
information is provided, as are subject headings related to topics other than the
setting.

The bibliographic entries comprising the main part of the book are preceded by
an introduction and three essays, by, respectively, Anne Pellowski, Beverley Naidoo,
and Marianne Martens, all of whom have impressive records in the world of international
children’s books. These are followed by the annotated lists of book titles divided
into various parts of the world: Latin American and the Caribbean; Canada; Asia;
North Africa and the Middle East; Africa South of the Sahara; Antarctica, Australia
and New Zealand; Europe. Each country’s list of annotations is followed by useful
information about their main children’s book organizations, festivals and awards.
The volume concludes with lists of international awards and US awards with an
international focus, a guide to organizations and research collections, mostly in
the US and Canada, and lists of publishers from North America and other publishers
which publish/distribute international children’s books.

All of the titles not originally in English have been translated into English
and the bibliographic references are to the English-language titles. That all
titles annotated have been published in the United States/Canada would seem to be
a major constraint on an undoubtedly useful aid to teachers, librarians and anyone
interested in books which originated across the globe. To take as an example Ireland,
the country about whose children’s literature I know most, the selection is quite
odd. Eight titles are annotated, four of which have a fantastical setting or are
not set in Ireland. Of the others, Tomi Ungerer’s picturebook Fog Island
is referred to as having a "lots of Irish cultural markers" (156), but these are
stereotypical and outdated. Another title has a gay theme, but it was first published
in Ireland in 1993. While gay people may still experience difficulties, in general
attitudes in Ireland are now much more liberal (gay marriage was legalised in 2016),
and again without any note to this effect, an inaccurate impression is conveyed.
None of the books annotated would give children a good insight into modern Ireland,
but possibly these titles are based on publishers’ inaccurate perceptions of life
in Ireland.

As one would expect, the listing of UK titles is long and varied, and many
are not at all location specific. Again some books have fantastical locations or
are set in a country other than the UK, which is confusing. For example,
The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafón is set in Normandy, not
Britain, and the author is Spanish. There are many titles with strong British
locations and a sense of what it is like to live there which could have been included,
but which presumably are not published in North America.

While these instances might not be typical, they could cause some hesitation
about the annotations for the books from other countries about which those making
selections might know little, or nothing at all. The editors were, however,
constrained by the books available to purchasers in the United States, presumably
because schools and libraries are limited by the obligation to purchase titles
that are readily available from large suppliers with which their institutions
have purchasing contracts, and these suppliers may not look overseas for their
stock. In future editions of this bibliography, editors might consider including
even a small selection of books of excellence published outside North America
(and in particular titles translated into English and Spanish), especially as the
stated goal of Reading the World’s Stories is to point adults to "quality
and culturally authentic titles to read with children" (5).

Marianne Martens in her excellent article "International Children’s Literature
and Subversive Cultural Exchange" urges US publishers to be much more active in
searching abroad for literature that will enhance children’s understanding of other
cultures and people. According, to Martens less than two percent of the US market
in publications for young readers is translated from other languages. Some of the
reasons for this are practical–there are difficulties in evaluating books in
languages which editors/publishers cannot read, and sample translations may be
expensive to procure or may not reflect a book’s quality. There may also be cultural
differences in books from outside the US in attitudes to characters exposed to
alcohol or nudity, for example, and US editors may rightly be anxious about cultural
accuracy and integrity which may be difficult to assess. Of course, the USA is not
unique in the English-speaking world in its resistance to exploring world literature,
and as Martens’s essay implies, those who read only in English are the poorer for
this and hence the need for well-translated books for all ages.

The foregoing caveats notwithstanding, Reading the World’s Stories: An
Annotated Bibliography of International Youth Literature is undoubtedly a
useful and well-intentioned guide to an international selection of books for young
readers available from North American publishers. The editors have put in a great
deal of work researching and highlighting titles from parts of the world about
whose literature little may be known. It will be interesting to see if future
editions of this bibliography can reflect to an even greater extent the diversity
of world literature that is brought to our attention in Reading the World’s
Stories.